


all the riveted pride he wore

by AwayLaughing



Series: lines of descent [8]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Character Study, F/M, Gen, Grandparents & Grandchildren, POV - Abuser, The Hyuuga Clan is a Tragedy, There's not a warning for 'pov character is a total asshole', but if there was I'd have checked it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-07-30
Packaged: 2018-07-28 07:03:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7630027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwayLaughing/pseuds/AwayLaughing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Henshō knew. His father had spoke of it often, both the before and the inevitable end. How these idiot branch members so easily forgot what it was like before. Hunted like animals, treated as if their venerable dojutsu like fruit on a low hanging branch, ripe for harvest.</p><p>Henshō hadn't forgotten.</p>
            </blockquote>





	all the riveted pride he wore

**Author's Note:**

> Last warning, this POV character _is abusive and thinks like an abuser_.

Henshō closed the door to his rooms quietly, not at all surprised to see Tsukimi in sitting room. “You failed to attend the meeting,” he said, and ignored the sneer she sent him. Their duty was done, now they need only out wait one another. One of them would win, eventually. “Will you be arranging Hizashi's funeral or will you leave it up to Hiashi?” he asked as he headed into his dressing room.

 

“I will discuss it with him tomorrow. What are they doing with the boy?”

 

“What does it matter?” he asked, shrugging out of his haori. He'd sent all his personal attendants away for the night. “I imagine one of his mother's grasping relatives will take him as emotional blackmail.”

 

“Charming,” Tsukimi said, “I take it the Hokage will not allow Hizashi's name to go on the monument?”

 

Henshō didn't snort, but it was a near thing. “Heroism is over rated. He died doing his duty. We will honour this by explaining his death as a tragic accident, and not the more likely scenario.”

 

“Of course,” she said, “I assume this is where I come in?”

 

Henshō finished undressing and slipped into his night wear, going back to the sitting room before he bothered to respond. “No, Hiashi will handle this. It is his duty as clan head, and as recipient of Hizashi's sacrifice. It is our jobs as the main branch to honour these instances with our attention.”

 

“Indeed. We must certainly keep them thinking we care, delay the day they realize there are far more of them than there is us,” she said and he resisted the urge to smack her. She goaded him, because then she could parade around with a bruised cheek smearing his good name without having to utter a word. “Don't look at me like that,” she said, “they're not dogs no matter what you say. They know that once they were unsealed. Some day the right amount of them will get the same idea at the same time and act on it.”

 

Henshō knew. His father had spoke of it often, both the before and the inevitable end. How these idiot branch members so easily _forgot_ what it was like before. Hunted like animals, treated as if their venerable dojutsu like fruit on a low hanging branch, ripe for harvest.

 

Henshō hadn't forgotten. It was the role of the main branch to bear that burden of memory, to take the brunt of the scorn knowing they kept everyone _safe_. Even if no one appreciated it.

 

“If that's all, Tsukimi?”

 

“Of course,” she said. “May one of us wake tomorrow to find they're alone.”

 

Henshō smiled grimly, “I never rely on luck.” Her smile was just as ghoulish as his.

 

“And yet, I persist. You always were a coward.”

 

With that, she left, and somehow the quiet slide of the door was more insulting than if she'd slammed it.

 

Sighing, Henshō sank into one of the chairs of the room. Dealing with Kumo's attempts to stir up drama was tiring enough. Hiashi's miscalculation in and Tsukimi's bile were really just unnecessary. Better to have killed the girl and let the Kumo delegation return empty handed, she wasn't showing any promise anyway, and a neater solution than Hiashi's haphazard rescue. And if he couldn't manage the prudent action, he should have killed the rest of the damn mountain scrabblers and Konoha could have just disavowed any knowledge of this whole affair.

 

The only bright side was getting rid of Hizashi. His decline in behaviour had been galling of late. Pawning his pawn off on others to deal with and then changing his mind, tantrums in public and then getting pulled off field assignments. No this, at least, was better than it could have been. They didn't lose any useful shinobi in this, and Hizashi's nosey spawn at least seemed to accept the way of the world.

 

More than Hiashi did. He rubbed his forehead at the memory of Hiashi's little...outburst. Konohagakure had made this family so weak. Had made everyone so weak. So certain of their safety. Tsukimi at least was old enough to recall the chaos of before. The Hyūga had been, in those uncertain times, stability in order personified. Henshō would not bank everything on the slim possibility that this was forever. Would not allow his pathetic son to do so either, not while he drew breath.

 

A knock at the door interrupted him, which was just as well. Henshō was a member of the main branch, it was his job to understand and plan where small minds could not. These thoughts plagued him often, and there was no solution for now.

 

“Come in,” he said, and a slim woman he didn't know by name edged in. “I said in, girl. Surely you can follow such simple instrutctions?”

 

“Yes Henshō-sama, my apologies Henshō-sama,” she said, entering fully. “My mistress sent me.”

 

And of course, she was too simple to realize one should say who their mistress was. At least it wasn't hard to guess. There were few non Hyūga residing in the clan complex, all of them brought with Hiashi's wife. Provided by the Kagetsu clan to keep Ume company, apparently. Ridiculous, but Konohagakure had wanted a cemented alliance, and Hiashi had been far too long without a wife to be picky.

 

“And what does Ume-dono need with me at such a late hour?” he asked, honestly unable to fathom it. He had no time for that useless twittering woman. The fact she'd provided such a weak heiress was one issue, the fact she had yet to provide an appropriate replacement just made it all the more worse. She only had one job, since she was not proficient enough at anything else to bother giving any extra duties.

 

“She wishes for me to inform you that Neji-kun will be placed in the renovated west wing, by the dojo. She says it would rude not to inform you of a change in the family.”

 

“How prudent of her,” he said, almost unable to understand what she was saying. “Am I to understand no one was able to look after Hizashi's son, then?”

 

“Uh,” she said, like the ill bred twit she was. “Hiashi-sama has adopted him, Henshō-sama.”

 

Suddenly, his head hurt. “I see. Thank your mistress for informing me,” he said, and watched as she hastily exited. Graceless, he thought, but not as much as a problem as that idiot boy.

 

Weakness. That was the problem with the clan today, it allowed weakness to fester like an infection under the skin. Any duty Hiashi had to Hizashi ended with the proper honouring of his death, taking the boy in was just going to give the clan the wrong idea. It created the idea of expectation of obligation, as if the main clan did not already do so much for this clan.

 

Well. For tonight, or what remained of it, there was nothing to be done. It was possible he could convince Hiashi to send the boy somewhere more appropriate once he'd cooled down, in the morning. Hiashi was usually more reasonable than he'd been tonight, all Henshō could bank on was him coming to his senses.

 

And if that didn't work out, he would just have to make certain to keep things under order himself.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Well, his wife got her own POV so I figured it was only fair to try and puzzle out Grandpa Hyuuga too. Naturally, abusers do not see themselves as such, and are very good at viewing everyone but them at fault for whatever crimes they feel are being perpetuated.


End file.
